The first half of the spring term passed in frosty silence on every front. The arrest of Albert Freidl and the subsequent incarceration of his entire family reignited the tensions between the two opposing factions in the group, particularly because the coven had been careful to keep details of the poisonings from reaching public ears. There were no physical confrontations, but there was a tense silence in the dormitories and a certain viciousness in duelling lessons that hadn't been present before.

It was the absolute silence from Hermione that tore at Gellert's heart though. She was writing to Berg, but Gellert hadn't received a single letter form her in weeks. Gellert thought that she was acting like a spoiled brat, and he refused to be the one to apologise for winning a duel, so he didn't write to her either.

Berg was acting oddly too - a strange awkwardness in his interactions that Gellert was starting to suspect meant that he was siding with Hermione, particularly because the younger boy received frequent communication from her.

But despite his anger, when they were pulled in for their career advice day, Gellert wished that he'd had a chance to talk to Hermione about it first. Whilst his future would obviously be managing the Grindelwald estate, young scions were still expected to specialise in at least one subject.

The six teachers of their core subjects each had a room in an otherwise nondescript corner of the castle, and they were each called in in alphabetical order. Whilst Berg settled in for a long wait with a whole pile of assignments, Gellert just idly practiced flame charms with the Elder Wand, strengthening the marvellous bond that they already shared. He was called in after barely an hour of waiting.

He was called into the second room, which ended up being a small classroom on the ground floor. Like any reasonable ground floor castle room, there were no windows and it was lit entirely by burning torches on the walls. Herr Hor sat at the front desk, a pile of parchment at one elbow and a couple of printed advertisements for certain jobs. As he took a seat, Gellert quickly recognised a potion brewery that was sponsored by his family and a small farm that grew toads and tadpoles for use in various potions that was owned by Berg's... or Alice's really, considering the two were estranged and Alice was in control of his family wealth. The symbol of the revolution was stamped on each corner of the parchment, and he noticed it on several more of the papers - businesses that supported the revolution and probably only employed others who did.

As Gellert took a seat, the duelling master immediately asked after Hermione, who'd easily been his favourite student during her short visit the year before. He replied with gritted teeth, telling his teacher that his sister was fine and continuing to keep up her training. He couldn't help but drop in that he'd managed to beat her, which finally earned him a nod of approval.

'So... you'll be managing your estate, serving in your sister's coven, I imagine.' Herr Hor began, balancing his elbows on the desk, battle robes falling back to reveal toned arms. That was exactly what Gellert intended to do, but still a brief annoyance flashed through his mind that everyone just assumed that Hermione would be the leader of their coven. She had a sect, but she without it, he'd beaten her. He could lead the coven instead, if he wanted to.

'Yes.' Gellert grunted, forcing his emotions behind thick occlumency barriers and an impassive expression. There was silence for a moment as Herr Hor glanced over a sheet of parchment.

'You're currently taking the maximum of ten classes, so if you want to take any 5th year electives, you'll need to drop something.' Herr Hor pushed a sheet of parchment across the table that listed off all of the available classes and their prerequisites. Gellert perused it in case he'd somehow missed an option. He hadn't. After several minutes of silence, Herr Hor spoke up again. 'Do you have any idea of what field you'd like to study after Durmstrang?'

'Perhaps.' Gellert answered. 'I've been interested in sorcery, but that is not very commonly studied.'

'Cursebreaking would cover a number of the same skills.' The duelling master informed him, 'runes, wards, magical theory. There is a sorcery elective of course, which you can take.'

Gellert knew that he wanted to study sorcery, which was considered almost a prerequisite to joining a coven. Most of the casting that covens did was some form of sorcery. Cursebreaking seemed as good a suggestion as any, and Herr Hor was right that it'd pair well with sorcery. He marked both options with a scratch of a quill, then he added in warding as well, reasoning that it was also along the same theme and it might help him understand some of what Hermione wrote. Herr Hor peered at the paper to see what he'd written.

'I'd advise that you continue with magical theory and runes, if you intend to take those electives.' He suggested, drumming his nails against the solid oak of the table. 'I imagine you're a little beyond basic spellcasting now too, might I suggest trading it for witchcraft?'

Gellert nodded in agreement and ticked the witchcraft box. That meant that he'd be taking on four new subjects, so he had to drop four as well. As fascinating as ethics was, he quickly decided that it was essentially common sense and he could afford to drop it, along with basic spellcasting as the teacher had suggested. Magizoology followed close behind, and eventually he settled on dropping ancient magic with the reasoning that he could always just ask Mordred if something came up.

He handed the sheet back to Herr Hor and the duelling master looked over it.

'This will be very intensive.' He cautioned and Gellert shrugged, certain that he could handle it. His father had managed a similar course load at Gellert's age. 'It's also very focused, you won't have many options if you change your mind.'

Again, Gellert shrugged. As far as his mother was concerned, casting was the true calling of a Grindelwald and she'd made it pretty clear when she assigned him his father's notes over summer that it was sorcery she wanted him to pursue. He doubted she would ever let him pursue something as mundane as a potions or magizoology mastery.

'Well, if you're sure?' The duelling master confirmed, tugging a pocket watch from his robes and glancing at it. Gellert caught a glimpse of the time and realised that his meeting had barely taken five minutes. Then the watch was tucked away again and the teacher was signing a slip of paper to say that Gellert had selected his courses and received advice. Gellert signed too, and was then dismissed with instructions to send in "Hutters".

He swept out, cooly instructing his dorm mate to head in, then approached Berg. The boy looked up.

'What did you choose?' Berg asked. Gellert showed him his parchment, marked with the selections. There was silence for a moment as Berg read it.

'I'm going to keep studying ethics.' Berg finally commented. Gellert sneered at him. 'I think it's important that these issues are discussed, especially for those of us in power.'

'What else?' Gellert demanded.

'Healing. I want to become a healer. I think we probably do enough witchcraft with Hermione to be above the level they'll teach here and I'm not as good at that kind of...' He twirled his w=fingers as he struggled to find the word. 'Magical netting, spell weaving. I'd be like a troll in a tea shop trying to do wardbreaking.'

'True.' Gellert acknowledged, unable to help the small smile that flickered across his lips at the imagery. 'You'll be a good healer though. You've been stitching us back together for years.'

'Only because neither of you have any concept of responsible riding. Hermione's the worst - I keep telling her to just use a sticking charm.'

'She's right though, you can't adjust your weight properly with a charm holding you in one place. I throws off the beast's balance.'

'You've been listening to Gorlois.' Berg accused, levelling his quill accusingly at Gellert. The smile had turned into a full grin by then and he felt some of the cold anger uncoil from around his heart. Hermione was wrong, but she was important enough to him that he could be the bigger man and write to her... not apologise, but he would write.

'Gorlois is an excellent rider.' Gellert pointed out.

'He's also dead.' Berg said dryly.

'He didn't die in a riding accident.'

'No, he'd already fallen off by that point.' Both boys had been told the glorious saga of the siege of Tintagel several times, along with a number of other stories of heroic feats by Hermione's ancestors, often accompanied by singing and reenactments during their stay at her Barrows.

'No, he was unseated in a mighty charge by the enchanted lance of Uther Pendragon.' Gellert corrected, adopting the ancient wizard's deep baritone. Berg snickered. Then they sobered for a moment, both boys staring off into the distance.

'I hate school.' Berg finally admitted. 'I hate it when we can't be there to protect Hermione.'

'She'd curse you if she knew you thought she needed protecting.' Gellert cautioned and Berg huffed.

'She's not stupid, she knows someone needs to watch her back.'

'I think she's got allies at school.' Gellert suggested, squinting as he tried to recall her talking about allies at Hogwarts. To his horror, he couldn't remember her mentioning a single name. He said as much to the boy next to him and a moment later Berg hummed in agreement.

'I'm going to ask.' Gellert decided resolutely. 'I'm meant to be defending her honour, I can't do that if I don't even know any of the boys in her school.'

He jumped up, then almost tore his cloak as Berg grabbed onto it to stop him in his tracks.

'Perhaps don't start with that?' Berg suggested with a slight wince.

'I'm not apologise for anything!' Gellert reared up in indignation and Berg made hasty shushing motions.

'I'm not saying you should.' The younger boy soothed, 'just, maybe don't start with demands to know about her other friends... witches like Hermione and Anneken don't like that kind of possessive behaviour.'

Gellert consider for a moment, then shrugged and headed off down the wall. He would take Berg's advice, but that meant he had a letter to write... perhaps he could begin by discussing his subject choices.